


Home for the Holidays

by JJBashir



Series: The Aislinn MacMurdo Chronicles [4]
Category: seaQuest
Genre: Brother-Sister Relationships, Brotherly Affection, Brotherly Angst, F/M, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Meet the Family, Meeting the Parents, hometown angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:47:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23760088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JJBashir/pseuds/JJBashir
Summary: Tim finally takes Aislinn to Lansing, Michigan, to meet the O'Neill brood.  So why isn't he happy about it?
Relationships: Tim O'Neill/Aislinn MacMurdo, Tim O'Neill/Original Female Character(s)
Series: The Aislinn MacMurdo Chronicles [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/60416
Comments: 7





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [helsinkibaby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/gifts).



> While I was going through and re-editing the existing [Aislinn MacMurdo Chronicles](https://archiveofourown.org/series/60416), I realized that I had many incomplete works that referenced things that would come into play in later stories, especially in [My Heart Will Go On](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1708750). So for the first time in close to 20 years...
> 
> There is a never published part of the Asilinn MacMurdo Chronicles.
> 
> It was never finished and it may never be completed, but for you few fans of the Chronicles that remain, this introduced the O'Neill family to the story and of all the incomplete works that exist, this might be the most important of them.

"Timmy, honey, you're a communications officer. You think you could call home a little more often?"

Lt. Tim O'Neill cringed. He was nearly 30, and his mom insisted on calling him 'Timmy'. He felt about six when she did that. "It's not quite that simple, Ma," he said, running his hand through his dark brown hair. "I'm really busy, y'know."

She smiled, her face filling the vid-phone link in the mess hall on the seaQuest. "Stop messing up your hair, honey," she said. She'd been saying that for years too.

"MOM!"

Adelaide O'Neill laughed. Her son always got so embarrassed still over the little mother-tude things that she did. She couldn't help herself. Del prided herself on her efforts to bring him out of his shell, and of her six children, number four, Tim, was always the most serious. She could tell there was something up, though. Her son's usually reserved demeanor was less intimidating than usual, he was actually smiling more. He looked--happy.

"Is everything OK with you, honey?" she asked. Everything hadn't always been "OK", not since Tim decided to go to the Naval Academy. His father had been furious, even more than usual, and Tim had suffered a lot over the years because of it. It was bad enough that Tim wasn't the most physical of Del's three sons, but his decision to join the military had created a huge rift between father and son, one that Del ever wondered would be healed.

Tim smiled. His mom ALWAYS asked him the same question. He usually lied when he told her that things were 'just fine, Ma.' Not this time. This time, he had a legitimate reason to be in a good mood. A five-foot-seven, one hundred and twenty-two pound, brown haired, green eyed reason. "I'm great, Mom," he admitted. "I've--well, I kind of--"

"Just spit it out, Tim. 'Mom, I've got a girl. She's super pretty and I want you to meet her'," Tim heard behind him. Ben Krieg came up behind Tim, grinning at Del. "Hiya, Mrs. O'Neill, how ya doin'?"

Del smiled. "Hello, Ben, dear!" she said happily. She had met Ben when she surprised Tim for his last birthday by coming down to San Diego with the twins while the seaQuest had been berthed there for a couple of weeks. She liked the brash young man, and the girls simply adored him. "Taking care of my son?"

"Krieg! Beat it will ya!?" Tim shoved Ben out of his mother's line of sight. "Geez, can't a guy talk to his mom in peace?"

Del covered her mouth. No one who had grown up with Tim would have ever believed that outburst. As much as Theo hated the idea of the military, the Navy was doing wonders for Tim. "So," she asked. "Is it true? You met a girl?"

Tim looked down at her feet. "Well, yes and no. Remember that woman I met in Scotland last year?"

"Carl's MacMurdo's cousin? The widow?"

Tim blushed. "Yeah. Her." _Linn would just love that,_ Tim thought. _'The Widow MacMurdo'._ "We've been writing back and forth...all year..and she joined the UEO Navy..."

"Really! That's wonderful. Go on, Tim--" 

"I would," he said patiently, "if you'd LET me, Ma." He took a deep breath. "Well, she got posted to the seaQuest. And we--well...I KNOW you're not crazy about me dating outside the faith, Ma, but--well--I am. Dating her, I mean." 

Del clapped her hands. "Oh TIM!" she exclaimed. "That's WONDERFUL!" She smiled her approval. Tim dating ANYONE was a good sign. She was always more than a little afraid that Tim would spend the rest of his life alone. "Now, her name's Elise? No, Alice? No--let me think--Allison--" 

" _AISLINN_ , Ma. A-I-S-L-I-N-N," he sighed. He loved his mom, but he really wished she would drop the scatterbrained act when she called. She had taught him his first three languages, for Pete's sake. "Anyway, it looks like the boat's gonna be in drydock during Thanksgiving week--and they don't need me around...it's the propulsion system that's being overhauled--so I was wondering--" 

"The twins could pick you up from the base in Battle Creek," Del offered. "They've taken such good care of the car, Timmy. You'd be so proud of--" 

"--if I could bring Aislinn home with me for Thanksgiving." There. He finally managed to get the words out...even with the mini-update on his car. Tim held his breath. He had NEVER brought any girl he dated since he left home with him--not ever. 

"What was that, honey?" Del asked. She COULDN'T have heard him right. He wanted to come HOME? He wanted to bring someone home with him? For THANKSGIVING? She honestly didn't know if he'd even dated since he left home. This had to be a huge step for him. He had to be serious about this girl. 

__Tim took a big breath. "Is it OK," he said slowly, "if I bring my--my girlfriend home with me--for Thanksgiving?"_ _

__Del was so happy she wanted to burst out laughing._ _

__"We can stay at the base in Battle Creek--or a hotel-- if it's going to be a problem, Ma," he said quickly._ _

__"You'll do no such thing!" Del exclaimed. "Your room's open, and Pip and Squeak can always bunk together for a week. It won't kill them. Besides, they'd do anything for YOU, Timmy. Now, did you want me to make anything special for your friend??"_ _

__

__Tim was lost in thought as he made his way back to the bridge. He still wasn't crazy about this whole thing...if Aislinn hadn't insisted it was about time she met his family, he would probably be spending Thanksgiving at Pearl Harbor---like he spent the last three Thanksgivings. He had joined the Navy to get OUT of Lansing, to get away from his family, and every single person that ever said he'd amount to nothing._ _

__He was deep in thought when he wandered onto the bridge and went to take over the communications conn. He stood there a moment, simply watching the woman at the console adjust several controls. Her fingers were long and fluid, and moved with incredible grace along the keyboard. Tim shivered, thinking about how many times those same fingers had slipped through his brown hair, or found their way into his own. A small smile tugged his face as she acknowledged his presence, not by looking up, but by continuing her diagnostic and saying :_ _

__"You're LATE, Leftenant."_ _

__"Sorry, Lieutenant," he said. He watched her finish up the last set of keystrokes, then felt his heart beat speed up as she looked up at him, her green eyes glowing in the dim light of the bridge._ _

__"Lt. Tim O'Neill, reporting for duty," he said, standing crisply at attention._ _

__"Oh BOTHER that," she said, standing up. She pulled her hair out of the clip that held it back in a ponytail, and shook it loose. "What did she SAY?"_ _

__Tim smiled. Lt. Aislinn MacMurdo was beautiful no matter WHAT she did, but right now, she was downright ravishing, with her dark brown hair cascading down her shoulders. He sat down at his station. "She said--yes," he announced smugly._ _

__Aislinn shook her head. "Och, yer in one of THOSE moods," she said. Her Scottish accent only came on when she was off-duty._ _

__"Yeah, I am, so play nice," he said._ _

__She grinned, and snuck a kiss on his cheek. "I thought we were going to play LATER," she purred in his ear._ _

__A delicious shiver ran down Tim's spine._ _

__"Ah, MacMurdo?" they heard. Aislinn turned her head, to see Lt. Commander Katie Hitchcock giving her a 'for shame' look. "Will you please stop distracting the crew and get off my bridge?" she said jokingly to her best friend._ _

__Linn stood at attention and gave Hitchcock a smart salute. "Aye, Commander!" she said. She smiled at Tim, and moved her hands rapidly. "We'll talk later," she said in sign language._ _

__He nodded his head._ _

__Later, Tim ended up on Seadeck, when Aislinn spent the latter part of her days working with Dr. Kristin Westphalen, Lucas Wolenczak and Darwin, the dolphin, on perfecting her universal translator. The idea was simple; a device that could take speech and translate it instantaneously into another language. Tim often joked that she was simply trying to find a way to put both of them out of a job, but her current goal was to use it to turn a visual language--American Sign--into an audible one. Lucas had developed the Mammal Vo-Corder software system to communicate with Darwin, and he and Linn were using his basic program design to create the Visual/Audio Language Translation System--or the VAuLT System. "OK it's not a flashy name," she had told him once. "What did you want me to call it--funny language doo-dad?"_ _

__Since Darwin understood both sign and audible commands, he was a perfect test subject. That is, if Lucas and Linn could work out the glitches the software threw at them. There were days that Tim didn't even venture past the Seadeck door, after hearing her muttering swear words in all of the languages she could speak fluently--fifteen, at last count._ _

__Today was a good day...she just looked tired, not crazed. Her usually neat hair was ruffled and messed, undoubtedly from her running her hands through it while she was thinking. Lucas looked like he lost a race. Tim felt for them on these days...Linn's work was being followed by the doctorate board at her alma mater, the University of Edinburgh, and even though she was making real progress in her research, a set back often sent her into days of brooding and overwork._ _

__"Hey guys," Tim said, walking over to the moonpool._ _

__"Tim!" Darwin sang. "Tim come play??"_ _

__Tim smiled. He was genuinely fond of the dolphin, though he rarely took him up on his offers to 'come play.' For once though, Tim though it was just what the depressed troops next to him needed. "Sure, Dar," Tim said. "Give me a minute...we gotta get suits on."_ _

__Linn looked up. "What we?" she said. She was beyond frustrated, she couldn't even move._ _

__"Us, we," he said, gesturing to all of them. "You two look like hell."_ _

__"Thanks awfully," Linn said sarcastically._ _

__"Come on, Lucas...it's just what the doctor ordered!" Tim said, moving to the changing rooms at the back of Seadeck._ _

__"Aw, Tim," the teenager whined, "I'm not really in the mood to--"_ _

__"What did I order?" said Dr. Westphalen, entering the room._ _

__"A romp in the moonpool with Darwin," Tim called out from behind the screen._ _

__Kristin smiled. "Hello, Lieutenant," she called out. "That sounds like fun to me." She headed back to where her own scuba suit was. "Come on you two gloomy birds--it'll be good for you!"_ _

__Darwin squirted Linn with water._ _

__"Darrrwin!" she shouted._ _

__"Dream Lady is sad," he said. "Sad is bad. Play with Darwin! Be happy, Dreamy!"_ _

__She smiled, hearing Darwin's pet name for her. "All right, all right, ye overgrown guppy...ye win." She pushed herself up off the floor and followed Kristin._ _

__"Darwin not guppy," the dolphin said. "Darwin mighty hunter! Play Sudden Death Overtime! Always win!"_ _

__"Oh yeah?" Lucas said. "Not this time!" He scrambled to the changing room._ _

__

__"So, she said yes?" Linn asked, when she, Tim and Lucas were eating dinner later on. She was actually putting food in her mouth and chewing this time, not just pushing the food around her plate. Tim tended to get very annoyed when she let a setback in her work affect her so much she wouldn't eat. It was eat dinner--or be marched down to Medbay to face the wrath of Dr. Westphalen._ _

__"Yeah," Tim said. "After she recovered from the shock," he added wryly. He wouldn't have even noticed if Linn decided not to eat tonight. His own dinner was sitting on his plate, barely touched._ _

__"Which she is this?" Lucas asked between mouthfuls. He was shoveling food down his throat, as usual. It seemed that no matter HOW bad a day Lucas had, unless he was in front of the computer, his stomach would always need filling. "You gonna eat that, Tim?"_ _

__"Huh? Oh, nah, go ahead," he said absently, pushing the plate of spaghetti in front of Lucas._ _

__"This is cold!" he complained. "I'm gonna go heat it up," he said, getting up._ _

__"Tim, are you OK?" Linn asked softly._ _

__Tim shook his head. "No," he admitted. He took Linn's hand. "Are you SURE you really want to do this, baby?" he asked quietly._ _

__"I know this isn't easy for ye, Tim, but yes, I'm sure," she said, squeezing his hand slightly. "I don't want to be meetin' yer parents for the first time the day of the wedding, if ye know what I mean."_ _

__He chuckled._ _

__"What are ye afraid of? That one of your brothers is going to steal me away?" she teased._ _

__"No," he frowned. "Just that my crazy family will scare you off."_ _

__She touched his cheek gently. "Never happen. Yer stuck with me, boyo, whether you like it or not."_ _

__Tim leaned over and kissed the tip of her nose. "Trust me, I like it. I like it a lot."_ _

__"Then stop worrying. It'll be OK," she said, as Lucas returned, the plate of spaghetti steaming._ _

__"Thanks, Lucas, for heating that up for me," Tim said as he pulled the plate in front of him._ _

__"HEY!" Lucas complained. "I thought you didn't want that!"_ _

__"Changed my mind," he said. He looked over at Linn's mostly full plate. "Am I gonna have to march you down to Dr. Westphalen again, young lady?"_ _

__

__"What about THIS one, Katie?" Linn asked for what seemed like the hundredth time. Katie Hitchcock was helping her pick out a dress for Thanksgiving dinner at the O'Neills. So far, the verdicts had been, 'too sexy' 'too cutesy' and 'You MUST be kidding!'._ _

__"Too frumpy," Katie said from the bed. "You might as well wear your uniform."_ _

__Linn threw the grey wool suit onto the growing pile of clothes on the bed. "I'm running out of options quick here, Katherine," Linn said._ _

__"Why not just wear that long green skirt with--"Katie walked over to the closet and pulled back the hangers. "THERE. Your cashmere turtleneck." Katie held them up together. "Simple, functional and elegant. Wear your black heels. You'll wow them all."_ _

__Linn smiled. "Thanks, Cody," she said, taking the clothes out of her hands and placing them in her UEO issue duffle. "I'm so nervous, I cannae even think straight anymore."_ _

__Katie grinned. "I still remember the first time I met Ben's parents...I was scared out of my mind."_ _

__Linn sighed, then sat on her bed. "I KNOW Tim's not crazy about going home--I really feel like a great bully, y'know?"_ _

__Katie nodded. "But, you're right, Linn. You and Tim have been going together for nearly five months. It's high time he trotted you out for the rest of the world to see."_ _

__Linn smacked herself on the head. "That's it, isn't it?" she asked. "The whole time we've been together, we've pretty much been down here," she said, pointing to the water right outside her porthole. "He's afraid I'm gonna bolt the minute we hit topside, and I get a gook look at whatever else is out there."_ _

__"Well," Katie asked. "Are you?"_ _

__Linn snorted. "Bolt for WHAT, Katie? Some muscle bound pretty boy with a brain the size of a walnut? Whose idea of Italian vocabulary is 'Ferrari' 'Porsche' and 'Testarossa'? Thanks, but I think I'll stick with the quote-geek-unquote."_ _

__Katie laughed. "Please, Aislinn, don't hold back...how do you feel, REALLY?"_ _

__Linn joined her friend in her laughter._ _

__"You don't REALLY think Tim's a geek?" Katie asked._ _

__Linn leveled a hard look at her friend. "How many times do I have to say I think Tim's the sexiest thing to walk the planet? So, everybody else thinks I'm crazy--"_ _

__"I don't," Katie said. "I ALWAYS thought Tim was cute." At the look of disbelief on Linn's face, Katie blushed. "OK, not cute--REALLY cute. OK?"_ _

__Linn sat with her mouth wide open._ _

__"I think he kind of liked me, when I first came on the boat, but the stripes intimidated him," she said ruefully._ _

__"Yer kidding me, right?" Linn said. "I mean, ye LIKED Tim, and ye didn't GO for it?"_ _

__Katie shrugged. "It wouldn't have worked, anyway," she said. "You were still out there. The two of you would have found each other, sooner or later." Katie threw a pillow at Linn. "Besides, I couldn't be your best friend on this tub if you had up and stolen Tim from me, now could I?"_ _

__

__"Just stop worrying about it, Tim," Warrant Officer Miguel Ortiz said. They were chatting on commlink 4, their favorite line for discussion when things on the bridge were at a lull. "Be glad you're getting a chance to go. I'd kill for a chance to get home for a couple of days, even."_ _

__"Yeah," Tim said, "except you WANT to go home. I joined the Navy to stay as far away from Lansing, Michigan as I could get. The only reason I'm even doing this is because Linn guilt-tripped me into it."_ _

__"How'd she do that?" Miguel asked._ _

__"Threw the 'you're ashamed to be seen with me' argument out on the table," Tim said._ _

__"Ouch," Mig winced. "She plays for keeps, doesn't she?"_ _

__"Yup," Tim agreed. "She knows I love her so much, I'll do ANYTHING to prove it. How come women are so devious, Mig?"_ _

__Ortiz smiled. "Ah, mi amgio," he said, "the description 'the fairer sex' is a misnomer. They're lions, and tigers, and bears, all rolled up into one."_ _

__"Amen to that," Tim said._ _

__"Uh-oh--kill the line, Tim. Here comes Commander Ford..."_ _


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The meetings begin.

"The seaQuest will be still at Pearl when you get back Sunday, Lt. O'Neill, so you won't have to worry about a ride back," Captain Bridger said, as he escorted his Communications officers to Launch Bay 3.

"Thank you, sir," Tim said. He was still in uniform, and wearing his seaQuest jacket with the UEO emblem emblazoned on the back.

"Thank YOU, Tim," Bridger said. "I'm sure you're loaded down with more requests for stuff to bring back than I can shake a stick at," he laughed.

"Yes, sir, but I don't mind at all," Tim said. _Gives me an excuse to be out of the house,_ he thought to himself.

"Mind adding a bit more to the list?" Bridger said hopefully.

"Not at all, sir," Linn said, taking the piece of paper the captain was holding. "Besides, Now I have an excuse to shop to me heart's content."

"Good. Glad to be of help," Bridger said. The shuttle with the propulsion system overhaul crew had just arrived from Pearl Harbor, and Tim and Aislinn would return that shuttle craft back to the base, then fly out to Battle Creek, Michigan. "Have a good time, you two," he said, shaking Tim's hand and giving Aislinn a big hug. "The old boat won't seem the same without the two of you aboard.

"Trust me, sir," Tim said. "I'm already counting the days til I get back." He hefted his duffel bag up on his shoulder. "You ready, Linnie?"

"Ready and waiting, Tim," she said. "Bye, Captain Bridger," she said, following O'Neill onto the launch.

"Have fun, you two!" Bridger called out.

"Fat chance of that," Tim muttered under his breath.

It was morning when they had left Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It was LATE afternoon of the same day when they reached Ford Air Force Base, right outside of Battle Creek, Michigan. Tim and Linn has spent most of the flight from Pearl sleeping. It was going to be strange, getting used to life above water, and time zones, again. Life underwater existed at what was known as 'Zulu' time--or Greenwich Mean Time, the time at zero degrees longitude, the Prime Meridian. There was no need to change what time noon occurred underwater--they almost never saw the sun. The couple would be arriving in Michigan during what would normally be the last part of their sleep cycle.

The whole plane was filled with military personnel coming home for the Thanksgiving break. A burly NORPac Marine who was their seatmate gently shook Tim awake. "Hey, buddy, we're landing," he said.

Tim opened his eyes slowly, and fixed his glasses. "Thanks," he said. He stretched, his arms still gently cradling Linn's sleeping form. "Wake up, sweetie," he whispered in her ear.

"We almost there?" she asked sleepily.

Tim swallowed hard. She always sounded beautiful, but never more so than right as she started to wake up. Her voice was so soft and silky. He kissed the top of her head. "Yeah, eudail, we're almost there."

She arched her back, and wrapped her arms around Tim's neck. "Mornin'," she whispered as she gave him a quick peck.

"Afternoon," he amended, and smacked her thigh. "Are you SURE--"

"Yes," she said, "and it's too late to get out of it, so stop," she teased. "This is going to be wonderful, if ye let it be."

They walked off the plane, onto the tarmac. The base was just outside the city, and the wind whipped in off Lake Michigan and onto the Great Plains like a freight train. They managed to find their bags, being laid out on the tarmac, and Tim started looking around. Ford was one of the few bases that allowed vehicles owned by military personnel onto the tarmac... _At least it's military unless the twins had got Mom to switch the registration without telling me,_ Tim thought.

**_BeepBEEEEEEP!!_ **

Tim smiled, as he saw the vintage, 1971 gold Impala convertible with the top down, pull up to within seventy or so feet of the plane. It was being escorted by a military jeep, and one of the MPs got out and looked at the fifty or so military personnel milling around. 

"Which one of you mugs is O'Neill, Timothy Andrew, Lieutenant, Jay Gee, UEO Navy?"

Tim took Linn by the hand and strode up to the MP. "That would be me, sir," he said to the officer. "What can I do for you?"

He jerked a thumb back at the Impala. "That your car?" he asked.

Tim smiled. "Yup, that sure is."

"So those those two imps are really your sisters?" the MP asked.

Sitting in the front seat were two teenage girls, identical in every way from their pixie bobbed haircuts to their sand brown eyes and huge grins. Tim shook his head. "I hope they weren't _too_ much trouble, Sergeant?" Tim asked.

"Nope, they were perfect ladies, Lieutenant O'Neill" the MP grinned. "Just wanted to make sure is all, sir," the sergeant said. "Have a nice visit home," he said, with a tip of his helmet.

"Thank you, Sergeant," he said. Then he turned to the occupants of the car. "You two! Get over here!" He roared, motioning to his feet.

Both girls scrambled up and hopped over the sides of the car. In about three seconds, Tim found himself engulfed in about two hundred pounds of brunette. They were giggling and crying at the same time, and Tim was suddenly glad he had let Linn talk him into coming home.

"Hey, Pip. Hey, Squeak," he said lovingly, giving each of his twin sisters a huge bear hug.

Linn was watching her boyfriend embrace his youngest sisters, and she suddenly felt nervous. she could tell that these two little girls loved their big brother, and that they would be her test...if they hated her, then all bets were off.

"We missed you SO much, Timser!"  
"Mom said you'd come home for Thanksgiving!"  
"Can I wear your seaQuest jacket? You PROMISED, Timser!"  
"Hey! I wanna wear--"

"Settle down, you two!" Tim laughed. Josephine Anna and Alexa Andrea were numbers five and six in the O'Neill family tree, Jo-anna being three minutes older than her twin, Alex. Since they were both five pounds at birth, and hadn't gotten considerably larger over the years, Tim had always called them PipSqueak, since they were always together. Because Alex appeared to be the leader, the more outgoing twin, she was Pip, and Jo-anna, seemingly always behind but actually the dominant twin, became Squeak. The nicknames had stuck over the years; now they almost never answered to their real names. Tim, being the closest to them in age, was most often their babysitter. He never minded. He loved taking care of his little twin sisters, and felt at times that he was more of a father to them than the man who sired them. "I missed you too, you mini-twisters!" he laughed, hugging them both tight again. "Go open the trunk, Pip," he said.

"Aw, TIM!" she whined.

"Now, Alexa," he ordered.

"OK, OK, I'm going!" she sulked.

"How's my favorite twins?" he asked the remaining girl.

"Psyched that big brother is home," said Squeak. "Can you help me with my French project, Timmy?"

"Por quoi?"

" 'Cause you--"

"En Francais, s'il vous plait."

Squeak concentrated for a moment. Then she smiled. "I forgot how to say it," she admitted sheepishly.

Tim had motioned to Linn, and as she moved closer, he grabbed her bag, and threw it in the trunk of the car with his own. "We'll work on it when we get home, OK, kiddo?" he told his sister, messing her hair a little. "Love the haircuts, by the way," he said. 

They both beamed, then looked curiously at the woman standing nervously at Tim's side.

Tim caught their gazes. "This," he said, standing a little straighter as he slid his arm around Linn's waist, "is--my girlfriend. Aislinn. You mind your manners, and call her 'Miss MacMurdo' until she tells you otherwise, OK?"

Linn rolled her eyes at Tim's last statement.

They both started, first at Tim, then back at Linn.

"Linnie," Tim continued, "these are my sisters. This is Alexa Andrea, otherwise known as Pip. And the other one is Josephine Anna, AKA Squeak."

"Pleased to meet you, finally," Linn said, shaking the girls' hands in order. "Tim's told me so much about you."

Pip looked up at her older brother. "Mom wasn't just fooling with us? You really DO have a girlfriend?"

Squeak smacked her head. "Way to go with the tact, little sister," she muttered.

"PIP!" Tim hollered.

Linn giggled.

"Color me MUY embarrassado," Pip muttered.

Tim took the car keys out of her hand. "Let's get off this tarmac, ladies," he said, as he turned on the car, and put the top back up. "What possessed you demons to put the top down in this wind anyways?"

"Mom! We're HOME!!" Pip announced as they came into the neat little house. 

Linn had hit it off with the twins amazingly well, Tim thought as he drove them all home. After she assured them that yes, she really was their brother's girlfriend, and NO, somebody hadn't put her up to it, the three of them got along like they had known each other for years. Tim knew Linn was an only child, so the idea of sisters appealed to her. The twins really didn't get to know their sister as someone YOUNG, since Maggie had been married for two years when they had been born. 

Tim had his duffle thrown over his shoulder, and, because Linn had insisted on carrying her own bag, his girlfriend's hand in his own. Pip had gone into the kitchen, and Squeak was running up the stairs.

"I'm down here," they heard off in the distance. "I heard the herd of elephants over my head." Adelaide O'Neill walked into the living room. 

Linn was astonished. Except for height and gender, Tim was the spitting image of his mother. 

Her deep brown eyes sparkled with unshed tears as she went to embrace her youngest son. "Welcome home, Timothy," she said as she stood on tiptoe to wrap her arms around his neck. "How's my favorite sailor?"

Down went the duffel bag and Linn's hand as Tim wrapped his arms around his mother. "Bon jour, Maman," he said into her brown hair, and suddenly, Tim O'Neill was glad to be home.

"Oh, honey," Del said, "it seems you get taller and taller every time I see you."

Tim laughed. "I stopped growing when I was eighteen, Ma."

She pulled away to take a good look at her son. He'd grown more and more serious with every one of his tours aboard the seaQuest. She had had her doubts that a third tour would do Tim any good, even for his career. It seemed she was wrong. He looked happier than he had in years. His outward demeanor wasn't changed much. It would take something especially drastic to change the ultra-serious man he had grown up to become. But there was a brightness in his eyes Del hadn't seen since he left for the Academy. 

She reached up to brush that ever present lock of hair away from his face. "Ta mère est heureuse de te voir, mon fils. Très heureux."

"Maman," Tim chided. He hugged her again. "I'm glad to see you too, Ma," he said.

Del looked curiously at the beautiful young woman standing just behind her son. "And you must be Aislinn," she said, grasping Linn's hands firmly in greeting. She was a beauty, that was for sure. Tim had told her that she was a heart stopper, but Del wasn't quite prepared for Aislinn's luminosity. No wonder Tim was so happy. "Tim's told me nearly nothing, as usual, so we'll have a lot of filling in to do this week," she said.

Tim groaned. 

Linn smiled. "I'm sure between the two o' us, we can fill in all the gaps, Mrs. O'Neill," Linn said. "And it's Linn."

"I'm Del, and I'm sure you're exhausted. I'll have the girls show you to your room," she said.

That was the cue the two teenagers were waiting for. "C'mon, Linnie," Squeak said, grabbing one end of her duffle bag. "You're gonna stay in my room--it used to be our sister Maggie's, before she moved out."

"Like you remember that, buttmunch," Pip said, grabbing the other end of the bag. "We were babies when Maggie moved out."

"So? It was still her room, wasn't it?" Squeak struggled to pull the bag up the stairs.

"Now, lasses, there plenty o' me to go around!" Linn giggled. "Dinnae rip me poor bag apart--Tim hardly has room in his, without all me gear in there too!"

Tim watched his baby sisters escort their guest up the stairs. Linn turned for a second, and flashed Tim a smile. "I'll see you later?" she signed at him.

Tim nodded. "Go on," he signed back. "I'll check on you later."

She smiled again, and Tim didn't even need to see her hands to decipher her message. "I love you," that smile said.

He smiled back at her, hoping she could see the love in his eyes.

"She's very pretty, Tim," his mother said.

Tim turned to his mother. "No, Ma," he said. "She's gorgeous. And she's mine. And I haven't the foggiest idea how I got her." He shrugged his shoulders. "I mean, all my friends turn into babbling imbeciles when she walks into a room--she's smart--she's funny-- and here's the kicker, Ma--she loves me back. I don't get it, Ma. I really don't."

"It's because you're a good man, Timothy Andrew," Del said, gently touching her son's face. "I named you after TWO saints--SOME luck had to be bound to come your way."

They shared a chuckle. Though Del loved all her children, quiet Tim was secretly her favorite. Maybe because he reminded her SO much of her brother Eric, so grave, but so full of life. Tim was always so curious, and too smart by half. Her husband claimed that she babied him, but babied or not, her solemn boy was a UEO sailor, and she was proud of him.

"So," she drawled. "Looks like the twins like your girlfriend a lot, Tim."

Tim smiled shyly. "She likes them," he said. "She's an only child, so it's a new experience for her." He grimaced as he looked up the stairs. "Wait until the 'company behavior' kicks out."

"Tim," Del said ominously.

The front door closed. "Ma! MA!"

Tim let out a shocked, "TEDDY?!" He turned to see his oldest brother come flying through the front door. Theodore O'Neill, Jr. was even taller than his six foot tall 'baby' brother. His sandy brown hair and blue eyes were the O'Neill norm, and he was burly and boisterous. 

"Timmy! What the hell are you doing home?" He grabbed his little brother in a huge bear hug.

For all their differences, Ted was Tim's favorite sibling, after the twins. Ted liked playing big brother to his two brothers and three sisters, and was always bragging about them to his friends--but with Tim, he seemed to be a little more proud, a little more willing to show off. His wife, Emily, practically adopted Tim as her own. Tim knew he was always welcome at their home--even if he never took them up on the offer.

"Geez, Tim, when was the last time you were home!? What, Christmas a couple of years ago?" Ted asked, taking a good look at his baby brother. "Man, they don't feed you enough in the Navy...you look even MORE like a beanpole!"

Tim shook his head. "Gee, THANKS, Teddy," he said. Then a broad grin split his face. "God, it's good to see you, big brother," he said, gave him a mock punch to the shoulder.

Linn walked down the stairs to see a HUGE man, grab Tim around the neck into a headlock. Over Tim's squeals, the larger man proceeded to give Tim a wicked noogie. Linn covered her grin with one hand, but the giggle that escaped was loud enough to draw attention to her. The tall, sandy haired man looked dumbstruck as he spied her on the stairs.

"Hey, Linnie, c'mere," Tim said. Linn had NEVER seen Tim so animated before. He bounded up the stairs, grabbed her hand, and practically dragged her downstairs. He looked like a little boy, he was so full of life and energy. "Teddy, this is my girlfriend, Aislinn MacMurdo. Linn, my big brother, Theodore--but we all call him Ted."

Linn gave Tim's brother a smile. "Very nice to meet you," she said, holding out her hand.

Ted looked at her hand. Then he shook himself out of his shock, and shook it warmly. "Where have you been hiding HER, Timser?" Ted said. "Wait--did you say, your girlfriend?"

Tim smirked. "What, you getting deaf in your old age, man?"

"Holy sh--"

"Theodore Thaddeus O'Neill, Junior!" Del screeched.

"Oops," Ted said. "I forgot you were there, Ma." He leaned over to kiss his mother on the cheek. "You see this?" he said. "Tim's got a girlfriend!"

Del smiled. "Yes dear, we've met. Shouldn't you be at the office?"

Ted shrugged. "Pop sent me uptown to drop off some estimates, so I decided to stop in and see my favorite girl on my way back to the office," Ted said.

Del blushed.

"Why didn't you tell us Timmy was coming home?" he accused his mother.

" 'Cause I asked her NOT to," Tim said. "I wanted it to be a surprise."

"It worked," Ted said. "So how long you home for, Timser?"

"A week, then we're back to seaQuest."

Ted winked at Linn. "You're in for a hell of a week, Aislinn," Ted said. "Thanksgiving at Casa O'Neill gets really hairy!"

"What was that about hairy Thanksgivings?" came a new voice from the back door. Linn looked over to see perhaps the most striking man she had seen in a long time standing there. His grey suit screamed Brooks Brother, and his nearly blonde hair was brushed back away from his face. He had a bright smile and his blue eyes twinkled merrily.

"Hey Kevin," Ted called out. "Look who popped out of the ocean."

"Hi, Ted. Hi, Mom," Kevin O'Neill said, kissing his mother on her cheek. "TIM! How are ya?" he said, clapping Tim on the shoulder.

"Hi, Kev," Tim said cautiously. Kevin was only two years older than him. A doctor. The one sibling that loved to torment Tim at every turn. If Tim started something, Kevin had to copy--and do it better. The only skill Kevin couldn't master was Tim's aptitude for languages. Tim couldn't count how many times he had admitted he had a crush on some girl, and Kevin would start dating her the next week. Kevin was the O'Neill golden boy. And Tim was NEVER made to forget it. He was surprised, even after all the time he had spent on the Navy, how much he still resented Kevin.

Linn squeezed the arm around Tim's waist a little. She could tell that he was feeling out of sorts, just by the tone of his voice. She hadn't been lying when she had told Del that Tim had told her little to nothing about his family...the man standing in front of her was probably one of the reasons why. Tim was tense for the first time since he walked into this house. And the one thing she HATED was a tense Tim.

"And who is THIS?" Kevin was saying as he acknowledged the woman beside Tim. He had seen her from the door--how could you not notice a woman like that? Her long brown hair framed her beautiful face, her green eyes a study in loveliness. Kevin O'Neill was a purveyor of fine things...fine wines, fine clothes and fine women. She was one of the most beautiful he had ever seen.

"Lieutenant Aislinn MacMurdo," she said in a neutral voice. "Pleased to meet you."

Tim picked up on her voice right away. It was her work voice---the one she used when she was on the conn. No accent. Her arm was still around his waist, and she pulled him a little closer to her. Tim smiled. Linn could tell he was not happy to see Kevin, and was, in her normal Scottish way, 'taking steps'. In a perverse sort of way, Tim was happy about it.

"Dr. Kevin O'Neill. A lieutenant?" Kevin said. "In the UEO Navy?"

"Yes," Linn answered. 

"And how do you know ol' Timmy here?" Kevin asked, knowing how much his brother HATED being called that. "Met up in some training class or something?"

"Oh," she said casually, smiling at Tim for a second. "I'm his girlfriend."

Kevin blinked. He did just hear that right. "What?"

"Remember that girl I told you Tim was writing to?" Del offered. "This is HER."

Kevin looked at his younger brother. "The girl you met in Scotland?" he asked. "When you housesat for Carl?"

Tim nodded. "Yeah," he said dreamily. "This is her, Kev. This is MY girl." Tim kissed her cheek.

"Och, gowan with ye, daft lad," Linn said, her accent more audible

Kevin nodded in awe. Yes, Tim had told him about this woman he had been writing back and forth with. He had even shown him a picture. But she wasn't beautiful, she was drop dead gorgeous. Kevin smiled. This was just going to make the old game that much better.

"So Kev, what brings you to the homestead?" Ted asked. He had noticed Linn's reaction to Kevin and he was glad. It was about time Tim had found a girl willing to put Kevin in his place. Ted had always disapproved of Kevin's particular toments of Tim...usually after the fact, after everyone else found out about them. Tim wasn't the vengeful type--but Ted was, and after Kevin had stolen Tim's fiance right from under his nose, Ted had warned his middle brother to lay off Tim. That was nearly five years ago--but it looked like Kevin was going to ignore him. Ted just hoped that Linn would prove herself to be the right girl for Tim--the one that would stick with him now matter what charm Kevin pulled on her.

"Ah, just wanted to say hi--and see the old man," Kevin said, sneaking glances at Linn.

"He's not home yet," Del said. "and I wish you wouldn't call him that, honey."

"Oh, he likes it," Kevin said. "I'll just hang around til he gets here. YOU guys gonna be here for a while?" he asked Tim archly as his girlfriend fidgeted with her fingers. "I figured we'd catch up."

"Ah--NO--um, Linn and I were gonna go out for a walk," he said. One of the BEST things he loved Linn. She KNEW when he was stressed out, he couldn't think quickly She had concocted a walk as a cover story--and then told him to announce it to everyone--in sign language. "Show her the old neighborhood."

"You'll stay for dinner, Kevin?" Del asked. 

"You know, Mom," he said, "I think I just might."

Tim wanted to scream.

"Well, how about I go finish these estimates, and go grab Lee and the kids and come over too?" Ted offered. "We can make it family night."

Del clapped her hands. "OH, that would be wonderful!" she cried. 

Kevin wanted to scream. A night with whiny Emily and the three brats. was not what he had been hoping for.

"I'll even bring dessert," Ted added. "I hope you like ice cream, Linn. Lee makes the BEST butter pecan this side of the river."

Tim laughed. "You just said the magic words, Teddy," he said.

"Butter pecan?"

"Ice cream."

"Tim," Linn said, patting his hip. "Walk," she said expectantly.

Tim smiled sheepishly. "Yeah...that walk." He leaned over and kissed his mother on the cheek. "Want us to pick up anything while we're out, Ma?"

"No honey," Del said. "Enjoy your walk."

"I'll see you in a bit," Kevin said.

"Yeah, sure Kev," Tim said. He and Linn turned towards the door into the living room. Kevin watched them walk out--well, he watched HER walk. Kevin shivered. He'd like to see that view much closer.

"I owe you one," Tim whispered to Linn as they went through the door.

"I expect payment in kisses," she whispered back.

Tim grinned as he pecked her cheek. "Can I owe you a few dozen more?"

"Sure," she said. "I know yer good for it."

Kevin sighed as his brother and his girlfriend walked out of the kitchen.

"Don't do it, Kevin," Ted said ominously.

"Do what?" Kevin shrugged.

Ted didn't often exert his authority as the oldest brother with his siblings. But, he had watched Kevin hurt Tim one time too many over the years. Tim already almost didn't belong in this nutty family--between Kevin and his father, no wonder Tim had run off to join the Navy. Ted grabbed Kevin's shoulder. "You know what I'm talking about, Kevin Michael," Ted said. "Don't even try it. Tim loves that girl. A LOT."

Kevin shrugged. "Is it MY fault that the ladies love me?" he asked.

Ted shook his head. "You may be my brother," he said sourly, "but sometimes you just make me SICK." He turned on his heel to leave. "Stay away from her, Kev. I mean it."

Tim hadn't been on that many walks with Aislinn. Walking outdoors was novel enough. For the first time in a long time, Tim was glad to be walking around at home, showing her all of his old haunts. 

They passed by Nichol's, the corner store. Despite his mother's protest, he picked up some ice cream cones for dessert. They walked along the back roads, Tim pointing out old houses or trees, and he guided their steps to the place that had been his refuge growing up. The old deserted lumber mill in the woods behind his house. The old dock was still as rickety as it had been the last time he had sat here. He kicked away a few branches, then sat down. Linn moved to sit next to him, but he pulled her into his lap instead, facing her towards the lazy stream. Tim wrapped his arms around her, and held her close for a long lime, content to rock her in his arms and plant soft kisses against her hair.

"Ye want to talk about it?" she asked him.

"Yeah--no--I don't know," Tim said. He sighed and squeezed her tighter.

"Ye loved her very much," Linn said quietly. "The girl he took from ye?"

"GirlS," Tim emphasized the plural. Then he sighed "But I was going to marry this one," he admitted.

"Is that why ye joined the Navy?" Linn asked. 

Tim shrugged. "It was the final push," he said. "But no, it wasn't the ONLY reason." Tim sighed as he plowed on. "YOU--you FIT in your family, Linn," he began. Tim had met her grandfather and her mother-in-law, and had known her cousin, Carl and his mother, Michele, for years. They had all met at Linn's graduation from Basic, and the couple had just spent a recent furlough with Linn's grandfather, Angus MacMurdo. "You act the same, you all like the same things...you fight and disagree and all the stuff families do--but YOU fit." Tim shook his head. "I've always been the square peg in a round hole. And it started in that house. I don't FIT," he said. "I'm the oddball. I'd rather be reading than playing ball with my brothers and my dad---I liked taking care of the babies. My pop--I swear he thinks I'm gay or something."

Linn settled back against Tim. "They all seem to love you so much," Linn observed, cuddling closer. "Especially the lasses."

"Yeah," Tim admitted. "Ted and Maggie--you'll meet her later, I'm sure--they're great. I love them too. A lot. And the twins..." Tim smiled as he though about all the picnics and games he and his youngest sisters had played as they were growing up. They had only been eleven when he left for the Navy--now they were almost grown. "I wish I had them around all the time."

"I bet," Linn said. Alexa and Jo-Anna shared their brother's vibrance, Linn thought...and his clever wit--and so many other things. "But--"

Tim sighed. "Ted did what he was supposed to--he started in the business--the contracting company. And Kev--well, he's Mr. Golden Boy. A M.D. Nice condo in Lansing. Headed for a cushy admin job at the hospital...."

"And good little Tim was supposed to be?" Linn hinted.

Tim chuckled. "Well you know the drill--we're a GOOD Catholic family..one son to carry the line, one to serve the world--and one to serve the Church."

"NO!" Linn exclaimed, covering her hand to stifle the giggle. "Not--FATHER Timothy?"

"Hey, our parents didn't name us after saints for nothing you know," Tim said. "My dad was determined to have a priest in the family. His uncle is a priest. MY uncle is a priest...hell, there's been a 'Father O'Neill' in this parish for nearly one hundred years."

"Until now," Linn said.

Tim nodded. "My dad HATED me for putting seminary off every year--then I met Carol Ann."

Linn swallowed. "The girl you wanted to marry."

Tim nodded. "She was a linguistics major...like me. Not as smart as YOU though," he teased, kissing her hair. "We were in the same Spanish seminar sophomore year. And we were study partners..."   
"And she was your first serious girlfriend," Linn added.

Tim nodded. "Hell, she was my FIRST--PERIOD."

Linn turned to face him.

He grinned sheepishly. "Told you I was a late bloomer," he said shyly.

She shook her head, kissed him. "Ye've certainly made up fer lost time," she purred into his lips, thinking back on all the nights they had spent in each others' arms recently.

Tim moaned softly as Linn's body pressed against his own. "Mmmmmm," he murmured. "You taste so good."

She slipped her hands under the turtleneck he was wearing. It had been so warm that they hadn't worn jackets. "And you FEEL good," she giggled.

"Linn, not here," he groaned as her hand slipped to the small of his back.

"Why NOT?" she said. "It's a beautiful day, Timothy. Why waste it?"

Tim let his hands wander to her waist. "Mmmm--not that I don't WANT to," he said.

She raised an eyebrow. "Shy?" she asked archly.

Tim frowned. "As a matter of fact YES, Aislinn..I feel a little weird contemplating making love to you outdoors less than a mile from my parents' house. OK?" He glanced at his watch. "Besides, it's nearly six-thirty. Ted and Pop should be home soon."

"OK, OK, OK," she said sullenly. "I want a raincheck," she pouted.

Tim kissed her nose. "Fine. When did you plan on collecting?"

She smiled. "When I collect all those kisses ye owe me, eudail," she said. He laughed as she got off his lap and then offered him a hand up. They turned back towards the house, hand in hand.

"Tim?" she said.

"Yeah, Linnie?"

She stopped walking, forcing him to look at her. "I love you. VERY much. And I'd never leave you for ANYONE--much less your slimy brother."

Tim laughed. He grabbed her close to him. "I love you too, Aislinn Elizabeth," he said


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aislinn meets Tim's father for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It gets emotionally rough from here on out.

Linn was shocked at the bustle of activity in the previously quiet house. She counted no less than six children running and weaving between the adults' legs...and she felt very VERY small suddenly. This O'Neill family was a bunch of GIANTS. She saw Ted, with his arm around an equally tall blonde woman. A redhead was carrying a bowl over her head, trying to avoid hitting any one. And standing at the window, his brown hair thinning in a monk's tensure, a pipe stuck between his teeth, was the man that HAD to be Tim's father.

"Ma!" Ted called out as he saw Tim and Linn in the doorway, "The waywards are back!"

Tim smiled as he held up the bag. "I brought ice cream cones, M--OOOF!" he said as he was tackled by the six kids. 

"Uncle Tim!" they screamed. "Uncle Tim, UncleTim! UncleTim's home! When'dyougetherewhatyoubringuscanyoutellusaboutthetalkingdolphinIwannawearyourhat--"

Linn giggled.

The tall blonde came over to her. "I'm Emily--Lee," she said, "Teddy's wife. Nice to meet you!" Her bright, sunny smile comforted Linn, who was badly out of her element.

"Hi," she said shyly.

"Mags," Lee called out. 

The redhead seemingly popped out of nowhere. "Hi, Linn, I'm Maggie Connely, Tim's sister. Mom and Ted filled us in," she said. "Wow. Tim did good."

Linn blushed again. She didn't think that her face would ever stop being red. 

The two women pulled her into the preparation process of an O'Neill family dinner. Lee handed her a knife, Maggie put a head of lettuce in front of her. "Think you can handle chopping lettuce while we chat?" Maggie asked. 

"You mean gossip," Lee chuckled.

Linn nodded slowly, feeling her head spin.

Lee laughed. "Don't worry Linn," Lee said. "I went through the same thing--scary isn't it?"

Linn swallowed. "Are there always so--so MANY of them?" she asked.

Maggie and Lee laughed. "This is just US--the twins are still at soccer practice. Wait 'til THURSDAY, when all the cousins and stuff show up...."

Tim walked over to the window. The blue-grey smoke filled the space for a moment, then wafted out the window. "Hello, Dad," Tim said quietly.

"Son," the deep voice rumbled without turning.

Theodore Thaddeus O'Neill, Sr. was a big man. He was a good father, he thought, and a good Catholic. Theo remembered the day of the birth of each of his children with fondness--he loved them. But he didn't always understand them...and he certainly didn't understand the youngest of his sons, Tim. Tim, who was always asking 'why'. Who was always pushing the limits of his patience to the breaking point. Tim, who simply couldn't do what was expected of him.

"You look fine, son," Theo said.

Tim fought the urge to snort. "You haven't even turned around to see."

Theo ignored the statement. "Your mother said you were dating a girl. That her?"

Tim wanted to scream. THIS was the reason he finally had to leave and do the one thing so out of character for him that it destroyed his relationship with his father. Tim snorted in his head. There had NEVER been a relationship with his father. "Yes, Dad. That's HER."

Theo looked over into the kitchen out of the corner of his eyes. "She's not as pretty as Carol Ann," he lied.

Tim clenched his fist.

In the kitchen, Linn told Maggie and Lee about how she found out Tim was in love with her.

"SEVEN weeks in a cast?" Maggie exclaimed.

"Man, I would hate to see what he would have broken if you told him you DIDN'T love him," Lee giggled.

Maggie's face got serious for a minute. Uh-oh."

"What?" Lee said. she looked over. "Oh, no," she said, watching Tim and Theo attempt to have a conversation through the kitchen window. 

"What is it?" Linn asked. She looked over at Tim. His right fist was clenched tightly--he was trembling enough for her to see it from where she stood. "Oh. Um, excuse me for a--"

Maggie shook her head. "You'd better not," she said sadly. "They haven't even got through hello yet."

"But--"

"Linn," Lee said, "if there's one thing I've learned about Tim over the last couple of years, is that he doesn't need protecting from Theo anymore."

Linn looked at Lee and Maggie. " 'Tisn't TIM I'm worried for. Excuse me."

"I bet she's not even Catholic."

"Anglican," Tim muttered from clenched teeth.

Theo turned. "Well, HELL, boy, why not just bring a Satanist to this house, and be done with--"

"Um, hello?" they heard. Theo looked down into the greenest set of eyes he'd ever seen. Her squarish face was framed by long brown hair, held in place with a headband. Her smile was demure and her voice like soft song. For whatever Theo had to say about his son...he certainly had amazing taste in women.

"I'm Linn MacMurdo. Tim's girlfriend," she said. "It's very nice to finally meet you, Mr. O'Neill." Her hand was outstretched.

Theo looked at his son, back at Linn's proffered hand, then turned back towards the window.

Tim shook with rage.

Linn ignored the insult. "Tis a lovely house ye've got here, Mr. O'Neill," she said. If there was anything that could break though the most hard nosed of people, Linn had learned, it was pure Gaelic charm. "Reminds me almost of me parents' home in Edinburgh."

Theo raised one eyebrow. "MacMurdo--that's an odd Irish name," he grunted.

Linn smiled, though Theo never saw it. " 'Twould be, if'n I were Irish," she said, her brogue turned up full blast. "M-A-C Murdo is Scottish."

Theo raised the other eyebrow. "High or Low?"

"High," she said. "Though, me branch of the clan have lived outside of Edinburgh since it was a one pony town. About--oh--eight hundred years years or so."

Theo grunted. "A long time," he agreed.

" 'Tis important to the Scots, family," she bored on. Theo looked at her finally, the wistful tone in her voice forcing him to pay attention. "Yer whole life is defined by it, in the Isles. 'Twas the time, when ye very life depended on which family ye belonged to." She chuckled. "Though MacMurdos do have a wee bit of a reputation of being the 'wild child' of the Clans."

Theo smiled at that.

"I suppose 'tis why I INSISTED that Timothy bring me to meet his," she said. "So I would know where HE had come from."

"That so?" Theo asked.

Linn nodded. " 'Tis important to me. And Tim--well--'tis a strong man to walk into a place he'd rather not be," she said.

Theo looked at his son for the first time. Tim never hid his anger well. His normally pale face was mottled with patches of red, and he was shaking. But he noticed the deathgrip he had on the woman's hand, and instead of turning and running, Tim was staring his father down.

"I suppose 'tis one of the reasons I love him so," she concluded, giving Tim's hand a squeeze. "I should go. Maggie, Emily and Del certainly need me help, with this brood runnin' aboot." She reached up on tiptoe to peck Tim on the cheek, and returned to the kitchen.

Tim looked at his father. "Dad," he said quietly. "You can insult me--you can even beat the hell out of me, like you used to. But don't you ever DARE insult that woman in my presence again."

"Don't you threaten me, boy," Theo said.

Tim took a step closer to his father. "When it comes to HER, I don't MAKE threats, Dad."

Linn resumed chopping her lettuce calmly.

"How did you do THAT?" Maggie said. "I've never seen anyone stare my father down like that."

"Years of practice," Linn admitted. "I'm used to dealing with hostile 'in-laws' as it were," Linn said. "Oliver's mother always thought that he married below him, by marrying me."

"Why?" Lee said. "You're great--even before you faced down the orge..."

"Lee--" Ted said, kissing his wife.

"He IS, Teddy," Lee said. "Tim's wonderful...and Joey just idolizes him."

"Our oldest," Ted clarified, grabbing the salad bowl.

"Lee," Del said chidingly. "Let's not ruin Linn's first night with us." She patted Linn's arm. "You'll just sit here next to me and Tim."

"Mom, we're home!" Squeak called out from the living room.

"Cleats upstairs!" Theo bellowed. 

"Yes, Dad," Pip said bored.

Dinner was different at the O'Neill's than Linn was used to. First off, there was grace. Her family were good Anglicans, but they almost NEVER said grace at family dinners...unless it was Christmas or some other very special occasion. Tonight's honors fell on Tim, as the returning sibling, as it were.

He stole a glance at Linn before he bowed his head. "Dear Father," he began, "thank you for this time with family, that You have given us. Thank you for keeping us all healthy and happy, and thank you for bringing me and Linn here safe and sound." He squeezed her hand under the table. She smiled, her eyes still closed. "May this food nourish our body, and may our strength be used to further Your will, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost--" They all crossed themselves at the mention of the Trinity. Linn fixed the 'mistake' in her head before she started, _left to right, not right to left,_ she reminded herself--"Amen."

"Amen," they all said, then plowed into dinner.

It was noisy. Well, there were two teenaged girls, and six kids, in ages from four to eleven. Plus the adults, who were all boisterous and animated. Except for the man at the head of the table. As the rest of the family talked about the going ons in their lives, Aislinn studied Theo O'Neill. She could imagine the halo of blue-grey smoke around his head, even though the pipe was gone. He was a grave man--an intimidating one, but no more so than her own grandfather. He smiled as Kevin and Ted spoke about their days and their lives--and then his face grew impassive as Tim answered his nephews' questions about the seaQuest. His displeasure grew by the moment. Linn was fascinated...and a little afraid.

"Right, Linn?" Tim asked, nudging her ribcage. "Linnie, you awake?"

"Huh?" she said. "Oh, sorry, eudail,' she said sheepishly. "I got a bit lost."

"No wonder," Lee teased. "Is your family this big?"

Linn shook her head. "Hardly," she said. "There's jus' me..and my cousin Carl, me aunt Mickie ...and the Admiral--Angus...me grandfather."

"You call you grandfather by name?" Ted asked in amusement.

"It's a term of endearment, trust me," she said. "When we start calling him Grandfather, he knows he's in trouble. Usually, he's just the Admiral, and we leave it at that."

"What about when he pulls rank on you?" Kevin asked.

Linn's eyes flashed. "I salute," she said primly.

Tim chuckled. "Not many people pull rank with ol' Dreamy," he said. "This salad is great, guys."

"Try the roast beef," Kevin said archly.

"Kevin," Del chided.

"Dreamy?" Lee asked.

"My name means 'dream' in Gaelic," Linn explained. "Some of the lads started it."

"Are you sure it's just because of your NAME?" Kevin asked.

"Positive," she said crisply.

"Well, the OTHER guys, yeah," Tim said. "Not me"

Everyone but Kevin and Theo laughed as Tim slipped his arm around Linn's shoulders and kissed her hair.

"Och, Timothy," she said, "not in front of the kids."

"So, you have no problems with being in the Navy?" Theo asked. "Being a woman and all?"

Tim and Linn both jumped in surprise. Tim didn't expect his father to start the old argument--he though that maybe he'd be considerate of their guest. _Except she's with ME, so she's even MORE of an outcast than I am,_ he thought bitterly.

Linn took a sip of soda to cover her surprise. "My entire family are sailors," she said. "My mother was a civilian member of the service, as was my grandmother, bless their souls. My family's served the Royal Navy for generations."

"The men of your family," Theo amended.

"My FAMILY," Linn reiterated. "For seventeen generations, Clan MacMurdo has served the Royal Navy with honor," she said quietly. "From making the sails to firing the cannons."

Theo regarded this slip of a girl warily. "So, you have no problems with the military," she said.

Tim groaned. _Please, Linn, please, please, please, don't fall in don't fall in, don't fall--_

"Actually, no," she said. "No I don't."

 _DAMN._ Tim wanted his head to drop.

"Even though they kill people by the thousands?" Theo said.

Linn took another sip of her drink. "I never killed a soul," she said, "and I hope to God I never have to. But, sometimes, the only way to STOP the violence to to meet it with a stronger force--or the THREAT of strong force."

"And murdering innocents--"

"Is a sad commentary of life," Linn snapped at Theo. "A lot of things are. GELFs, for instance."

"Now, wait a minute," Theo said. "They aren't even people!"

"YOU think," Linn shot back. "They were taken from the genetic code of men and women. Who's to say that they don't have every right that we do?"

"So, why haven't the military--"

"You seem to have a real PROBLEM with the organized military, sir," Linn said. "I wonder how you feel about terrorists?"

Tim looked across the table at the rest of his family. He mouthed one word at Maggie, Ted and his mother. 

**HELP.**

"Oh, it's too lovely a day to be talking politics," Del said. "and I'm sure the kids don't want to hear this boring stuff."

The eight kids at the table all regarded Del with a 'are you crazy?' look on their faces.

"How about helping me clear some of this stuff away, Aislinn?" Del asked mildly. 

Linn bounced up. "I would LOVE to, Del," she said.

The two women each grabbed some plates and went into the kitchen. As soon as the door closed, Tim turned to his father. "Dad, just leave her alone."

Theo snorted. "I won't allow it, Timothy," he said. "I don't want you to have anything to do with that--"

"Um," Ted said mildly. "I really don't want to hear you two rip each other apart in front of my kids. You want to fight, do it on the porch."

Tim looked at his older brother, then his father. He pushed his chair away from the table. "Fine with me," he said.

"Aw DAD!" one of the boys piped up.

"Shut it, Mike, and go help your grandmother," Ted said.

Linn was fighting the shakes as she stood at the sink. "Oh, Del," she said. "I am so sorry. I was far out of line. I--I think maybe it's best that I stay at the base--."

"Nonsense," Del said. "Theo likes to poke and prod."

Linn was shaking her head. "I've no right to pick a fight with him in his own home. 'Twas rude of me. I'll go apologize, then I'll--"

Del touched Linn's shoulder. "Linn, please don't," she said. "I want you to stay. I know you had to bully Tim into this. Don't run from us. I would hate that."

Linn smiled wanly. "Now I know where Tim gets it from," she said.

Theo looked at his son. Tim was clenching and unclenching his fists. When he heard the footsteps behind him, he turned. "Is there something you want to say to me, Dad?" he asked angrily.

"Don't take that tone of voice with me, boy," Theo said.

"WRONG!" Tim shouted. "I am NOT a boy. I'm a full grown man, Dad. One who can make decisions for himself--even if they hurt like hell."

"Oh--so you're grown?" Theo retorted. "So, that's the excuse you use run from your duties--"

"I wasn't called to be a priest, Dad!" Tim exploded. "I never WANTED to be a priest. YOU wanted that. Uncle Chuck told you how many times that the priesthood was wrong for me!

"You NEVER could do what you were supposed to do. You were always disobeying me!" Theo raised his hand

"Oh sure, Dad," Tim said. "Just try and beat it out of me, like you used to. Didn't that work like a charm?"

Theo looked at his son in shock, and swung anyway.

Tim grabbed his father's hand before it met his face. "Don't you ever touch me again," Tim whispered.

"I want you and that Anglican slut out of my house," Theo said.

"DONE," Tim said, and stormed back in the house.

Theo looked at the swinging door, then sat down on the chair on the porch. Tim had changed. The Tim he had known would never openly defy him like this. Tim was always subverting his will in other ways, subtle ways that Theo didn't understand. And that woman--the way Tim looked at her--it wasn't simply adoration on his part. There was something deep there. She had asked him to bring her here, Theo remembered her saying. Tim hadn't been home in years, but just because she asked, he came home for Thanksgiving. Theo shook his head. He didn't understand. Then again, he never did.

Tim stormed upstairs.

"Tim, for Christ's sake," Kevin said. "Why can't you just make peace with the old man for once?"

Tim stopped and looked at his brother--and his hands started shaking. "Just get away from me, Kev," Tim warned.

"But, Tim--"

Tim punched the bannister a few times. "I mean it, Kev, just stay the hell away from me." Tim kept walking up the stairs.

Kevin's gaze followed his brother up the stairs. "Oh, this is gonna be a fun Thanksgiving," he muttered.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things come to a head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This probably the most charged of the chapter. Mind the tags, they're there for reasons.

Linn poked her head in Tim's room. Del had told her that she kept it much the same way Tim had left it. 

Linn was surprised to see the solar system mobile hanging from the ceiling. A similar one hung from the ceiling of her old room in Inverness. A computer terminal sat on the desk, and there were movie posters in a multitude of languages on the walls. It was an ordinary room. It could have been the room of one of a thousand boys in this city. But, here and there, were the little quirky trademarks that labeled it an abode that once belonged to Tim O'Neill. The books in German and French. A banner from the University of Detroit-Mercy swim team. The stack of Humphrey Bogart holovids. A swatch of MacPherson tartan?

"Where'd ye get the kell?" she asked him.

Tim was busy shoving clothes in his duffle bag. "Carl gave it to me, right before I finished the Academy," he said shortly.

Linn entered the room all the way, and closed the door behind her. "Timothy--"

"Don't," he commanded.

"Tim, please," she pleaded.

"I DIDN'T want to come here!" he yelled. "I don't belong here--I only did it for you!"

She wrapped her arms around him. "Eudail, please, please listen to me."

Tim grabbed her close to him. "I don't belong here, Linn," he ground out between gritted teeth. "I can't, I can't do this--not even for you. I can't."

"Shhhh," she whispered. " 'Tis alright," she said. " 'Twas wrong of me to make ye, I know that now."

Tim cried silently in her arms, cursing himself for his fear. "I'm sorry, Linnie," he said brokenly. "I'm--"

"Shhhh...tisn't yer fault," she said, holding him as close to her as she could. "Come, Tim...let's go away from here. Tonight. I dinnae want to hurt you anymore. We'll go tonight." She wiped the tears from his cheeks and kissed him gently. " 'M sorry, eudail...I never knew it would hurt you like this..."

The door knocked quietly. "Timser? Timser, it's me. Can I come in?"

Tim looked at Linn, and she nodded.

"Come in, Squeak," he said. "Door's open."

Jo-anna had only been eleven when Tim had left home for good...but she still remembered what he would do after one of his fights with Dad. He would lock himself in his room and cry. 

Squeak didn't know why Dad and Timser couldn't love each other the way other fathers and sons did. Tim was her favorite big brother. He took her and Pip places. He played with them. He made up stories for them, and he sang them lullabys--even when Dad insisted that they were too big for them. And when they had nightmares, it was Tim's bed that she and Pip would go to. So when Tim was hurt, the first thing she wanted to do was to go to her big brother and comfort him the best way she knew how. She forgot how many times she had sat on her big brother's bed, his head in her little lap, and stroked his soft hair and told him how much she loved him, and wanted to grow up to be just like him someday.

She peeked in the room. Linn was there, her hand in Tim's. Tim had been crying; his face still got all splotchy and red when he did. Jo-anna felt kind of weird. It wasn't her place to make Tim feel better anymore, she guessed. That's what girlfriends did.

Linn smiled at Jo, then kissed Tim on the cheek. "I'll let you two talk," she said.

"I--I can come back," Squeak started to say.

Linn shook her head. "Far be it from me," she said with a sad smile, "to break an old family tradition." She walked past the teen, and touched her hair. "Your big brother still needs you, Jo-anna. Never, ever think he doesn't."

Theo was still sitting on the porch when the door opened and shut. He didn't turn.

"Mr. O'Neill," he heard.

Theo bristled. "What do you want?"

The veneer of charm and gentilly she had cultivated through the evening was gone. Aislinn was done being charming. It was HER Tim in that house, still crying, still hurt. His own father had done that to him. "I dinnae want a damned thing," she said quietly. "Just to know WHY."

"Why what?"

She took a step closer. "Why you won't accept Timothy for who and what he is."

"A coward? A murderer? " Theo snorted.

"Tim's not a murderer," Linn shot back. "He's an officer--a SENIOR officer--on the largest and most technologically advanced submarine to ever sail. And as for being a coward..." Linn's voice was stern, but something in the tone forced Theo to look at her. She was a wisp of a girl...just a bit taller than the twins. Her long dark hair reminded him of Del's, when they first met. The green eyes, however, were the keystones of the construction. Get locked into those emerald pools, and the battle was effectively lost. Theodore O'Neill wondered what those eyes did when they looked at his son. Right now, they were hard, and cold, and angry.

"You do know what a submarine IS, Mr. O'Neill?" she asked. "It's nothing but a glorified metal tube. It travels underwater. The older models--the more conventional models...they're cramped. Small. You feel like you're in the inside of a tunafish can. Only about one quarter of the recruits and officers that request sub duty make it. Know why? Because the FIRST thing they do---before you even begin training, is to lock you in a room. A very small room." She took a step closer to Theo. "You and about six other people...in a six by eight foot room. There's a bathroom...but other than that, you and your six new friends have to spend sixteen hours in that hot, smelly, cramped room."

Theo nodded, not understanding, but being compelled to listen.

"Then," she continued. "After you and the two or three others who made it through THAT get processed through, you start scuba training. And once again, you get locked in a room--a WATER filled room...and you have to make it for an hour in that room. Swimming, picking things up on the bottom--FUNCTIONING...with water all around you, and knowing that you can't get out--and then the next time, it's a two hour mission in the murky waters of the Chesapeake, where you can't see your hand in front of your face. You're isolated. COMPLETELY. The world could have ended up there..and you'd never know it. Then you and your training class get a sub for your very own. An OLD, 1970's model sub--one so small you have to turn sideways in the decks to get past each other. The bridge is the size of a broom closet. BARELY. And for a month, you have to LIVE on that tin can--underwater."

She took one step closer to Theo, close enough where she now had to look up to stare into his eyes. "NOW--knowing all that--imagine doing it--VOLUNTEERING for it--knowing that your greatest fear is enclosed spaces." She turned her head to one side. "You DID know Timothy's claustrophobic, didn't you, Mr. O'Neill? I wonder how he got that way?"

Theo shook his head slowly. "He was just being a baby--he's not afraid of--"

"He is DEATHLY afraid of them," she said. "He had to undergo HOURS of psych treatments before they would even let him into the program. And it didn't even work. Tim told me after he passed the first test...he ran back to the bathroom on the base and threw up for ten minutes. And he did it every single time he had to get locked up somewhere. He STILL does it--even on seaQuest."

"He told you a bunch of pity stories to get sympathy--" Theo started to say.

"No, he didn't," she said. "He told me because I nearly went AWOL in the middle of my sub training. Because I was going through the same thing. Because I'm claustrophobic...but I didn't tell anybody. I thought I could control it on my own. I couldn't. TIM was my anchor. Without HIM, I would have never made it. His letters kept me sane. I never spoke to him face to face for seven months---but those letters he wrote me--they kept me centered. They gave me something to focus in on when I thought I would go mad. So, you can call Timothy a lot of things ...but coward isn't one of them."

"Why are you telling me this?" Theo whispered.

"Because the bravest thing I've ever seen Tim do," she said, "was to walk off that plane and come to this house. Because in all the time I've known him...he has never ONCE mentioned anything concrete about his family. There were things in passing, but he never seemed to want to tell me much. And I don't like to pry. I didn't even know your name. He was willing to put himself through this HELL he's going through for ME." Linn turned back and walked into the house. She turned back for a moment to regard Theo. "So I just want to know, Mr. O'Neill, what kind of man WON'T accept his own son, after all of that...and if it's just stupid pride--or shame." She walked back into the house

Theo started at the door. Amazing, he thought. For the first time, Theo thought back to a day years ago--

"Dad, NO!" Timmy had screamed. The little boy was kicking and screaming as his father dragged him towards the basement."

"I'll teach you--telling lies like that on the priests--"

"It's TRUE, I SWEAR!" Timmy screamed. "Please, Daddy--please not down there!!"

"THEO!" Del screamed, "What are you doing?!"

"Teaching this boy a lesson!" he said as he threw the door open and shoved Tim in the basement. "No dinner for you, boy. That will teach you to tell lies!" Theo slammed the door, and locked it. He put the key in his pocket, and then turned to his wife. "What else am I supposed to do, Del?" Theo asked. "Tim has to learn he can't go around telling stories like that?"

"But what if it's TRUE, Theo?" Del demanded. "We can't treat him like this--we have to find out--"

"NO! No priest of God would do a thing like that--that boy is telling tales--I won't allow it--"

"Theo--"

Theo slapped Del across the mouth. "ENOUGH!" he roared--

Theo closed his eyes. It wasn't him, he thought. HE did what he thought was right. HE did the right thing.

Linn knocked on the door of Tim's room again. She expected Jo-anna to answer. 

"What?" she heard.

"Timothy?" She asked.

A pause. Shuffling and then steps. The lock turned, the door opened. Tim looked horrid, Linn thought. His face was still tear streaked. He smiled wanly as he held the door open for her and she walked in. He locked it behind her, and pulled her into his arms. He kissed her lips over and over, running his fingers through her hair, letting the soft locks slip through his fingers.

"Tim, no," she whispered.

"Yes," he whispered back, slipping a hand under her sweater, along her back. "I need to be lost," he pleaded, kissing her hair. "Please, Linnie...let me lose myself in you"

"Not here, Tim," she sighed huskily, fighting the urge to surrender to his caresses.

"Yes HERE," he pleaded again. He took her hand and pulled her to the bed. He sat down, bringing her with him. "Please, Linn--please. Let me make love to you...please." They kissed more, softly, Linn tasting the salt against his lips. She let him cling to her, and slowly, to undress her.

They lay under the blankets of Tim's bed for a long time. It was the one amazing thing about their relationship, their love affair, Linn thought as she rested her head against his bare chest, her fingertips gently stroking his chest. Never once did she ever have 'sex' with Tim O'Neill. He ALWAYS made love to her---playfully, sensuously....even lustfully. There was a tenderness in Tim that others simply didn't see--they couldn't see. He kept it locked away--deep inside himself. But when they were like this--just him and her, with nothing between them--this was the Tim O'Neill she had fallen so helplessly in love with. The man cradling her in his arms was as much a lost soul as she was. Somehow, they had found each other; now, they weren't lost anymore. They had found a place to belong. Wherever one was...that's where the other was supposed to be. Whatever pain one felt--the other shared it.

Tim was strangely shy, almost bashful. He cried silently once--and Linn thought that he was more a lost little boy than a grown man. It wasn't the physical pleasure he craved--it was the comfort, the sense of rightness that he longed for from her. 

He remembered the amusement of one of the priests that had heard as Tim confessed HOW many times he had made love to Linn. Technically, it was a sin, what they did. But how could it be a sin when it was so right--so perfect. She never made him feel self-conscious or shy. She made him feel masculine--and sexy. She WANTED him--and all he wanted was for her to feel as good as she made him feel, if that was possible. Tim smiled as he thought back on that day...he kissed Linn's hair. He could do this...he needed to do this. After all she had given HIM, he needed to do this for her...for himself. He needed to belong to his family. No matter what.

She stirred in his arms. "I should get back to my own room," she whispered. "It's kind of late to be heading out to the base."

Tim smiled. "I should be USED to this--you sneaking out in the middle of the night," he whispered back.

She smiled. "I'll be all packed in the--"

He touched her hand. "We're not leaving."

She looked at him oddly. "Tim--"

"I can't run from this--they're still my family. I--I have to take it all as it comes I guess." Tim shrugged. Then he noticed Linn shivering slightly. He picked up her sweater and threw it at her. She slipped it on, then searched around the floor for her jeans. Tim pointed to the dresser. "Third drawer. Sweats."

She smiled in appreciation. "What changed yer mind?" she asked.

"You," Tim said. 

Linn was puzzled as she came back to sit on the bed. "I don't get it."

Tim took her by the hand over to the window at the far side of the room. It was open a crack, but Tim opened it more, then told her "Look."

Linn leaned out the window and stared down--to the front porch.

Tim closed the window. "I heard every word."

Linn shook her head. "Och hellfire," she muttered. "Tim, dinnae do this fer--"

"I'm not, anymore, Linn," Tim said. "I realized it when I was sitting here with Squeak...I want to be here. I have every RIGHT to be here. And I'm staying. No matter what my dad thinks of me...or YOU." Tim wrapped Linn in his arms. "I just need you to be here with me. To do what you always do."

"And what's that?" she asked.

"Be my anchor," he said. "Be my strength."

Linn hugged him tighter. "Ye dinnae need me for all that," she said. She reached on tip-toe to peck his cheek. "Good night, Timothy," she said.

"Night, Aislinn," Tim said. "I'll see ya in the morning, OK?"

She nodded as she opened the door of his room. "Miss me while I'm gone," she teased.

He grinned. "Always, eudail. Always."


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim puts the last piece of his past behind him.

Tim rolled over at the banging on the door. He looked over at the alarm clock. 7:30 AM. He groaned as he rolled over.

"TIMSER!" he heard through the door. "Timser!!"

"WHAT, Pip?" he hollered from under the pillow.

"Can you drive me and Squeak to school today? Ma says we should let you and Linnie have the car."

Tim groaned again. He went over to his dresser and grabbed a t-shirt and slipped it on before he opened the door. He had slipped on a pair of sweatpants before he had finally dropped off to sleep the night before. He opened the door and squinted at Pip. "Alexa," he asked sleepily, "couldn't you have done this YESTERDAY?"

Pip shrugged. "Things were kinda HAIRY yesterday, if you remember," she said.

Tim ran a hand through his hair. "Class still starts at nine?" he asked.

Pip nodded. 

"On the porch by 8:15--no later, Pip, or you'll be late."

Pip hugged Tim. "Thanks, Timser," she said. She started to bound down the hall. "Um--can Linnie come too?"

"No," Tim said. "I'm not going to wake her up, just so you can show off."

Pip stuck her tongue out. "She's ALREADY up--she downstairs drinking coffee with Ma."

Tim shook his head. "So ask HER, Alexa. She may not be up to it, y'know."

"OK." She ran down the hall.

Tim shook his head. "Sisters," he muttered to himself. Then he chuckled.

Tim had jumped in the shower as soon as Pip had finished, and he was running a brush through his still wet hair when he came down the back stairs into the kitchen. The coast was clear--Theo usually left for work around 7 AM.

Linn was sitting at the table, a mug cradled in her hands. She was talking quietly to someone Tim couldn't see yet, probably his mother. His guess was confirmed as he reached the last step. Del was sitting at the table, still in her robe. Linn was wearing the blue sweater she had stolen from him a couple of months back. Even though it was huge on her, it looked far better on her than it did on him. He went over and kissed his mother's cheek, then did the same to Linn, before he went over to the counter to pour himself a cup of coffee.

"Nice sweater," he teased. 

"At least ye know where it is," she retorted. Tim was forever managing to lose his favorite shirts, only to have them end up in the oddest places. Most of the time, it was Lucas' or Miguel's closets.

"Good morning, Tim," Del said.

"Morning, Ma," he said as he sat down. 

"Linn told me you want to stay," Del said. "I'm so glad, Tim." She grasped her son's hand and squeezed it.

"It's not going to be easy," Tim said. "I'm not backing down off Dad, you know." 

"If yer staying just to pick a fight, Tim," Linn said, "I'll head out to t'base all by meself. I dinnae like it when ye get yerself worked up like that."

Tim shook his head. "I'm gonna be OK, Linn," he said.

"But--"

"I'm GONNA be OK, Linn," he repeated. He squeezed her hand. "Really."

She looked at him, then gave him a brief smile. 

Squeak was down the stairs first, giving kisses around the table, then she went to the breadbox and grabbed some bread to make toast. Her uniform was neat, the white shirt crisp, the green and blue plaid skirt straight and tidy.

Pip clumped down the stairs. The reason was on her feet--a pair of heavy, black army boots. Her short hair was spiky with gel, and her face was heavily made up. Her white shirt was tied at the bottom, showing a good deal of midriff, and there were bangles of all kinds on her arms.

Del sighed. They had this argument every morning. "Back upstairs, young lady," Del ordered.

"But MA," Pip whined.

"They'll just send you home again--and today, it'll be a long walk, with Tim having the car. Because I will NOT pick you up from school for another dress code violation! Upstairs, Alexa. MARCH it!" Del ordered.

Pip looked at her more reasonably dressed twin, then muttered under her breath as she clumped back up the back stairwell.

"She's just gonna get changed at school, Ma," Squeak said. "She always does, right after her third period class."

Del sighed.

"How long has THIS been going on?" Tim asked.

"For about six months or so," Del offered wearliy. "Why do you ALL wait til you get to seventeen to start acting crazy?"

Tim smiled. He had started being more openly rebellious right around the same age. As had Ted, Maggie and Kevin. Pip was just continuing the family tradition.

"It was after somebody asked her what her 'Nerdy' brother was doing in the Navy," Squeak offered. 

Tim groaned. "THAT old thing's STILL going around?"

"What--the nerdy O'Neills?" she replied. "Oh yeah. It's tradition. I think St. Xavier's would fall down around its foundations if it wasn't for the 'Nerdy O'Neills' holding it up."

Tim chuckled. "What are they gonna do when you two graduate?" he joked.

"Pray Ted sends all of his kids there," Squeak joked. "Father Thomas wants a new gym." As her toast popped out of the toaster, she sked Linn, "Will you take us to school with Tim today, Linnie?"

Linn was shocked for a moment. "Um-sure," she said. "If it's OK with your brother."

"It's OK with ME," he said.

After Pip had passed her mother's inspection, they bundled up and headed for the car. Tim wordlessly handed Pip his seaQuest jacket. She grinned. Linn saw the look of disappointment on Squeak's face--and handed Jo-anna HER seaQuest jacket, with a wink and a smile at the teen. Linn grabbed the dark brown bomber jacket hanging on the coat rack and slipped it on. she smiled at Tim, then turned to Del. "We'll try and be home for lunch, Mrs. O'Neill,' she said. 

"Don't bother, dear," Del said. "I have a ton of work to do around here. And it's DEL, young lady. Tim, why don't you take Linn out to the lake house?" she suggested with a wink. "I'm sure you two are going through water withdrawal."

"Ma," Tim said, blushing.

"We're gonna be LATE, Timser, come ON!" Squeak said, dragging her brother out the door. "Bye Ma!"

It was almost nine o'clock when Tim pulled the car into the parking lot of Saint Xavier's Parochial School. He looked at the brick building, amazed that it has shrunk over the years. That wasn't the case, of course, but it still looked far smaller in reality than it did in his memories. Tim mused silently at the changes in himself as he walked his sisters and his girlfriend up the stairs into the main hallway.

It had ALL shrunk. The walls of lockers, the scurrying students, the long hallways. EVERYTHING about the place seemed smaller. Tim was confused. He followed the girls to their locker, and was surprised that he already knew the way. "You have my old locker?" he asked Pip.

"We wanted it," she said.

"And we dared the school jockettes the first day to shove US into it," Squeak added with a toss of her head. "We sure showed them."

Several girls began to crowd around the locker. Pip and Squeak were popular, even though they ran with very different crowds. "Don't be late for homeroom again, Pip," Squeak admonished her sister, "or Miss Mulgreavy will stick you on in-house suspension for sure."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah,' Pip said with a negligent wave of her hand. "I'll be on time, LITTLE sister."

"I hate when she does that,' Squeak said to Linn. "Bye, Timser,' she said, reaching up and pecking Tim on the cheek. She began to go, but she paused, then gave Linn a quick peck on the cheek as well. "Bye, Linnie...thanks for the jacket." She bounded away with her friends, who were pointing at Tim and giggling like as only seventeen year-old could.

"Hey, Lex." Three other girls were waiting. They were dressed as Pip had been earlier in the morning; spiky hair, bangles, wild make-up. _The 'IN' crowd,_ Tim thought to himself.

"Who's yer FRIEND, Lex?" one of them asked. She was TRYING to be seductive--or as seductive as a sixteen year-old in green and blue plaid could be.

"Jenna, Karen and Lisa, meet my brother, Tim." Tim was glad to see Pip puff herself up with PRIDE to introduce him. "He's a Lieutenant in the UEO Navy."

"Ooooo," said Lisa. She was the one trying to act sexy. "You never told us your brother was, like, CUTE, Lex."

Pip snorted. "FOUR words, buttmunch," she said. "You. JAILBAIT. HIM," she said pointing to Tim, "Girlfriend." She concluded the show and tell session by pointing at Linn. "She's in the UEO Navy, too. I think they teach them all that hand to hand stuff--you know, how to kill people using a straw and a matchbox or some crap like that."

Linn rolled her eyes. Lisa scowled. Jenna and Karen giggled and Tim blushed furiously.

Karen stopped giggling. "Uh-OH! Battleaxe at high noon, chicks. Let's book--"

"Miss Foster. Miss Garcia. Miss Giambolvo. And MISS O'Neill. How lovely to see you NOT in homeroom," came a firm voice. "AND with your cross-town friends. I'm sorry, but you shouldn't be here. Only students of St. Xavier's are allowed on campus during school hours," the voice said firmly to Linn.

Linn looked confused. "Um--I'm not quite sure I--"

"How about alumni of St. Xavier's?" Tim asked. He turned to face the voice. "Hello, Miss Mulgreavy. It's been a while."

Carol Ann Mulgreavy nearly dropped her books. 

"Ah--um--you three, go on to class now," she said absently, trying to fix the hem of her grey sweater over her balck skirt. "Next time, it's suspension."

"Scoot," Tim ordered his sister.

"Thanks for the ride, Timser!" she said as she and her friends barreled off to class. "See ya later, Linnie."

Linn waved at the back of the teen.

"You look good, Carol," Tim said quietly.

"Tim, my God, how long has it been--"

"Five years--"

"Five years and LOOK at you!"

Tim shrugged, then pulled his car keys out of his jacket pocket. "Linnie...možete li da se zagrejete?"

Linn raised her eyebrow. It took a minute for her to pick up the phrase; Serbian was not one of her strongest languages. "Um, sigurno."

"Kasnije," he replied in Serbian again.

She knew what that meant. She took the keys from his hand and headed to the door. She was at the front doors of the school before she turned back to look at him. He was standing very close to the woman, not touching her. She looked as if she wanted Tim to take her hand or hold her or something. Linn could SEE the connection that once was there. There was some deep bond between them. 'Later', he had said. *I wish you would have told me before,* she mused sadly as she forced herself out of the door.

"You--you look wonderful, Tim," Carol Ann said. "You've hardly changed at all...."

Tim's eyes had never left Carol Ann's face. He had never thought he would forget what she looked like. Her curly blonde hair was captured in a loose knot at the top of her hair. She was wearing a heather grey sweater and a long black skirt. Tim remembered, somewhere in the haze of his memories, that HE had bought her that outfit. Her first teaching outfit, he had called it. _Five years, and she still wears it,_ he noted. Clinically. _God...I can think CLINICALLY about Carol Ann._

"You look--good," he said. _I don't feel anything,_ he kept saying in his brain. He was panicking, of course, about Aislinn. _Is Linn OK? Idiot, you should have told her about Carol. I'll make it up to her..._

Carol moved closer. "After five years, all I get is 'you look--good'?"she teased. She went to lay a hand on Tim's arm.

She could have been on another planet. He didn't feel a thing. "All things considered," he said, "I'm surprised that's ALL I have to say. Aren't you?"

She pulled her hand away slowly. "You can't still be hurt over all of that?" Carol said. "I got over it YEARS ago," she lied.

"So did I," Tim replied truthfully.

"Who is she?"

"Which she?"

"The she you gave your cars keys to, Tim?"

Tim blinked. She was two minutes late with the inquiry. "Her name is Linn." He paused. "She's my girlfriend."

It was Carol Ann's turn to blink.

"You thought I was kidding---about being over it?" Tim noted. "I am. Over it. Over YOU. I think I'm more shocked than you are."

Carol stepped back at Tim's tone. "Tim," she said. "Tim, I tried to tell you I was sorry..."

"After the first or the SIXTH time you slept with Kevin?" Tim asked.

"I thought you were over it," she said maliciously.

"I am," he replied. "I'm asking a question."

"I never meant to break your heart, Tim. I love--d you."

"You loved what you THOUGHT was me," Tim corrected. "I spent all that time, trying to live up to what everyone I loved wanted me to be. You, my parents...I didn't want to disappoint anybody." Tim had thought about what he would say to Carol Ann if ever they were to meet for a long time. NOTHING he had rehearsed was coming out. Everything coming out of his mouth was far more truthful than what he had planned over the years. "People change, Carol. _I_ changed."

"Tim," she said, touching his arm, "you haven't changed."

Tim laughed. He laughed for a long time. "Good GOD, Carol! I walk in here, my arm wrapped around another woman, and you say I haven't changed?" He shook his head. "Sheesh. Four years ago, I would have begged you to take me back. Four years ago, I wouldn't even dare show my FACE in this building. Three years ago, I just sat in the car when I dropped the girls off. Two years ago, I MIGHT brought her, but not let her come with me. Last year, I would have walked the girls to the door. But, NOW...I have a girlfriend, Carol Ann. Correction. I have a SOULMATE. I love her. Very much. She's the best thing to ever happen to me."

Carol stepped very close to Tim. "I thought _I_ was the best thing that ever happened to you," she said quietly. 

Her eyes betrayed the cavalier tone. She was just a little older than her students when she first met Tim. Sweet, serious Tim O'Neill...so very different from any of the boys she had dated in high school. Falling in love with him was easy. STAYING in love with him--she cursed herself every time she thought about how his brother Kevin had managed to turn her head. She had been a conquest to Kevin O'Neill; she had been a princess to his brother. Tim was the marrying kind; the kind your mother begged you to settle down with. 

Carol Ann wished she had listened to her mother.

Tim looked at her carefully. Whatever he said, it would hurt her to the quick. He didn't want to be callous. He didn't want to sound cruel. There was no way around being either. 

"I was wrong," he whispered.

Carol Ann Mulgreavey's brown eyes got wide. "You're right, Tim O'Neill," she said. "You HAVE changed." She clutched her books close to her chest, and stepped quickly around him and towards her office. 

Tim watched her walk away. Each step, he felt another bit of his innocence trail away behind her. "Goodbye, Carol Ann," he whispered. "I never meant to break your heart." He looked up and down the now silent halls, then turned towards the front doors of St. Xavier's.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation: Možete li da se zagrejete = could you go get the car warmed up? (Serbian)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reconnections and reassurances

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where my writing ended and after so long, I doubt I'll attempt to finish this story--but I hope it was enjoyable.

It was later in the afternoon. Tim mentioned nothing about the incident to Linn. He wasn't ready to yet. He needed to reconnect with her first, needed to refind his confidence and his inner peace. Shopping seemed to help. Spending money always caused a great deal of bickering and teasing between them, and it was what he needed the most. 

They spend the afternoon driving along the interstate, stopping at different malls and stores along the way to the small house near Lake Lansing that Tim had spent so much time in as a young man. By the time they reached the four room house in the woods, they had gotten most of their friends' requested items. Tim loaded everything into the trunk of the Impala, after removing the small duffle bag he had stowed there before they had left to drop the twins off at school. 

" 'Tis lovely here, Tim," Linn commented. She was hugging herself tight, chilled by the crisp November air. The smells were very different from her native Scotland...rich and earthy, with the wafting of smoke. It was a spicy smell, one that Linn never equated with fall before. *How could he bring himself to leave such a beautiful place?* she mused. So much of this place, this Michigan, colored her Tim; his attitude, his humor, his unique world view, were all permeated with the sensibilities of this place. She felt it in the biting wind that whipped through her coat, the leaves that swirled at her booted feet. She had heard others on the boat, those from the midwestern section of North America, refer to Tim as a 'Michigander'. She was beginning to see what that moniker meant, how truly it defined Tim.

"Hold on, let me get the door open," Tim said. She handed Linn the duffle and slipped the key into the lock. "It's gonna be cold, until I get the stove fired up," he said.

"The stove?" she asked. "I thought wood fires were illegal in the States?"

"They are in a lot of the states," Tim said, pushing the door open. "Rules are a little different out here in the woods." He pulled a box of matches out of his jacket pocket and called out to Linn, "Hold the door open, Linnie...I can't see the lantern." He found the hurricane lamp, and lit it. The small glow left a golden circle on the floor. "OK, eudail. You can shut the door," he said. He took the lantern and managed to find the generator switch. His parents had a generator hooked up to the house for electricity. Since the cabin was used year round, they kept the three hundred gallon tank filled with ethanol. Tim hit the generator switch, and heard the beginning hum. "It's gonna take a few minutes for the generator to warm up," Tim said. "Mom said that Ted stocked the cupboards and put clean blankets and stuff in the closets."

"I'll go make the beds then," she said. "Will I need the lantern?"

"Nope--there's a big window in the bedroom," Tim said. "I'll go get some wood, so we can warm your cute little toes."

Linn made a face. "I dinnae have cute toes," she sniffed.

Tim chuckled. "You have adorable toes," he said, smiling at her grumbling. He headed outside, and filled the small wheelbarrow with wood. He manhandled it into the cabin, then set about starting a fire. He hummed while he stripped the bark off one of the birch logs he had brought it. _Camp was good for something,_ he mused as he formed a pile of bark on the thin sticks he had placed on the grate in front of the three medium sized birch logs. He lay some tiny twigs atop the bark, and lit it. The white, paper thin bark curled under the flames, and the tiny twigs lit, then died out. It took several tries before Tim managed to get a tongue of flame. He began feeding the small fire small sticks, an inch in diameter. Once the fire began to take more of a firm hold, he added some of the smaller logs. Satisfied that the fire was indeed started, he brushed her hands clean as he stood. He turned around, to lock eyes with Aislinn, who was leaning against the wall. Her green eyes glowed.

"Nice fire," she said. She still had her jacket on. 

Tim walked to her, and slipped it off her shoulders. "Stay a while," he teased.

She smiled as she took it the rest of the way off. "Shall I start dinner?" she asked.

"I'd rather talk first," he said. He took her hand in his and brought her to the couch. He sat, then laid back, kicking off his shoes.

"Where am I supposed to sit?" Linn asked.

"You're not," Tim replied, pulling her down to lay on top of him. He shifted so that he was sitting up, and moved enough so that they were both on their sides. Their noses were touching. Tim took his glasses off, and then hers and put them on the table next to the couch. "Comfy?' he asked.

Linn nodded.

"Remember when I told you why I left home finally?" he asked.

Linn nodded. "Something about Kevin stealing yer fiance away from ye," she said.

Tim nodded. "That was her."

"At the school?" Linn's eyes widened. "Yer ex-fiancee is yer sisters' assistant headmistress?"

"Assistant lay principal," Tim sighed. "This is America, we have principals, not headmasters--"

"Nae get all semantic on me, Mr. O'Neill," Linn grumbled.

Tim kissed her nose. "Anyway. That was her."

"She's pretty...."

"I suppose so," Tim said.

"You suppose so?" Linn queried. "Ye must have thought she was more than PRETTY...ye were gonna marry her."

"Carol Ann was the first girl that ever really liked me BACK," Tim said. "I was twenty. She was nineteen. I was still all legs and two left feet." Tim sighed. "She looked like an angel to me in Spanish class. She went to Saint John The Evangelist across town, so she didn't know about my nerdy rep."

Linn winced. "Yer nae a 'nerd'," she replied hotly.

"I was, and continue to be, a HUGE nerd," Tim retorted, "With big, blacked frames and everything. Who do you think finally convinced me to get metal frames?" he teased. "I was so in love with her. I worshiped her."

Linn sniffed. "Mus' be nice, being worshiped," she said.

Tim stroked her cheek. "TRUST me," he said, "me worshiping you would be a bad thing. We'd never fight, for one thing." 

"Och."

"My thought exactly. I let Carol Ann get away with a lot of stuff. I guess that's why I never realized what Kevin was doing...right under my nose."

"How did you find out?" Linn asked quietly.

Tim sighed. "I came home for Thanksgiving," Tim said. "I had transferred to the Academy by then...Dad was none too pleased with me..and I saw Carol Ann and Kevin kissing on the porch." Tim grimaced. "It was more like mauling on the porch actually--but you get the idea. My fiance was cheating on me with my own brother."

"And did that famed O'Neill temper kick in?" Linn asked.

"Did it ever," Tim replied. "I punched Kevin in the face, called Carol Ann a slut and took the next plane back to Annapolis. I didn't see my family again until right after I was assigned to seaQuest."

Linn touched her nose to Tim's. "I'm sorry, Tim,' she said quietly.

Tim held her close to him for long moments. He buried his nose in her hair and inhaled the ever present lilac scent of her. "Don't be sorry," he said. "It was just the straw that broke the camel's back, that's all."

"Good Lord, there's more?" she asked. Her voice was muffled slightly by being pressed against his sweater.

Tim pulled her away, so he could look at her. "There's a lot more," he said seriously. "I don't know if you really want to hear all this, Linnie."

"Of course I want to hear this," she said quickly.

He opened his mouth, then said, 'Maybe we should have dinner first." He sat Linn up, and moved towards the kitchen.

"NOW, yer avoiding the subject, Timothy," she complained.

"HOW many times do I have to ask you not to call me that?" Tim asked.

"About as many times as I've asked ye NAE to hide shit from me," Linn replied.

Tim sighed. "Eat first. Soul-shattering revelations after."

Linn rolled her eyes. "Yer impossible." She then gave him a quick grin. "Adorable--but totally impossible."

**Author's Note:**

> Tim O'Neill, and the seaQuest and her crew are all property of Amblin Productions. Aislinn MacMurdo, and the O'Neill family are my own creations.


End file.
